MAY GOES TO BUCKINGHAM PALACE TO FORM A GOVERNMENT WITH DUP AFTER SHOCK ELECTION

The General Election produced a hung parliament after Tories lost seats nationwide.Conservatives has 318 seats, with only one left to be declared, and therefore cannot reach the 326 seats they need to form a majority government.Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour gains seats in extraordinary turnaround with 261 seats. Prime Minister May goes to Buckingham Palace to seek permission to form a minority government.Northern Irish party DUP set to support the Tories – but not in a formal coalition.UKIP leader Paul Nuttall resigns after party’s vote collapses.

LONDON – It is a hung parliament. In one of the most remarkable election results Britain has ever seen, Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative party only managed to win 318 seats, eight seats short of a majority.

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party gained 29 seats having initially been as far as 20% behind the Conservatives in opinion polls conducted just weeks before Thursday night’s election.

May has refused to resign as prime minister and is due to go to Buckingham Palace at 12.30 BST (7.30 a.m. ET) where she will seek permission from the Queen to form a minority government.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), a Northern Irish Party with 10 seats in Westminster, is set to back the Conservatives in an informal relationship – not a formal coalition government.

Scroll down for the latest developments as Britain comes to terms with a huge political shock.

12:27 – THERESA MAY LEAVES DOWNING STREET

Prime Minister May and her husband Philip leave Downing Street and set off for Buckingham Palace.

source

Sky News

1225 – HERE IS A RECAP OF THE KEY NUMBERS IN THE GENERAL ELECTION

There is only one seat left to declare, Kensington, but here are the results: